well...

I lied.  I know.  I was supposed to write posts for last Thursday and Friday and I didn't!!    But I am posting now, so...

Just a quick post about one thing in Japan I will not miss...bureaucracy.

I had to renew my driver's (drivers'?) license on Monday.  I hear you thinking "what is so hard about that?  send in the form!  or go stand in line at the DMV and bam! done!"  Well...no.  In Japan, you have to sit through a lecture.  If it is your first time renewing a license, then the lecture is 2 hours.  After that, just one hour. 

Let me walk you through the whole process.

Paperwork hours are 1-2.  I got there at 12:50.  There were already 30 people there.  You get in the first line...they scan your license in this cool machine which prints out a paper that has your license (front and back) and then things to fill out.  Then you pay (it costs 4000yen) and they have stamps for this, so when you pay, they stick stamps to a piece of paper.  Usually they give you the paper and you go to a different window, but in this case, they stick the stamps on the paper, you write your name on the paper, and give it right back to them.  What a waste of a piece of paper, eh!  ok...proceed to tables where you fill out a form about medical stuff (I did it in japanese and they were all very impressed.)  go to room to get eyes checked.  that was fun.  NOT.  Last time I was there, I had some help explaining about my eye, but I was on my own this time, so it was a bit of a mess.  but she let it go, thankfully.  Go to a window and turn in all the forms filled out up to this point.  receive another form and a colored tag.  Go to a room to get new picture taken (No smiling!!) turn in form after taking picture.  Go upstairs to classroom and sign in.   OK STOP for a moment.  I am not sure you are getting quite how hectic the process was.  Also, please remember that this was all happening in Japanese and also that there were people everywhere at all the different windows and stations.  It was really overwhelming.

Ok, let's proceed upstairs.  I was the first one there, so I sorta wandered around a bit, took a picture of the projector cause I am weird, bought a bottle of tea and went back in.  The lecture was the biggest waste of time ever.   We started with a video that just showed accidents and how/why they happen.  It broke down reasons behind accidents into categories: ignoring traffic sings (running a red light for example and hitting someone who had the right of way) or driver negligence? (there is a better word, but it was like the driver was texting or looked down to do something).  After the video, the guy talked for an hour and a half.  Besides the fact that I was the only foreigner suffering through it, the information itself was just irrelevant.  It was all statistics about accidents and numbers of people who have licenses in all of Japan and then Nagano specifically.  It was the kind of information that should be in a pamphlet for people to read while they are in the driving center waiting room or something.  It is not something that they need to waste time saying out loud.  I know there were people sitting behind me who kept falling asleep because the lecturer kept waking them up.  It was seriously boring.  But this is Japan.  They have the power to make people sit through things like that, so they do.  I am not sure what I think would be a good use of time, but not these stupid statistics.  Oh well. It is done and I can now legally drive in Japan until July 21, 2015!

Picture of the screen. Cause I know you were curious.